


Breathe for Him

by Stars_Flowers



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bucky Barnes Has Nightmares, Established Relationship, Like we needed another nightmare fic, M/M, Memory-ish Nightmare, My First Work in This Fandom, There's A Tag For That, When does the line cross with blood, Written a bizilion months ago, gore?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-25
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-12-07 08:56:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18232706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stars_Flowers/pseuds/Stars_Flowers
Summary: Steve and Bucky have lived through it all thick and thin. Trauma and pain induce them in gallons of drugged shots. So what if sometimes a dream crosses the line of being a dream and enters a realm void of happiness? What happens next?*AKA~Bucky has a nightmare and Steve's in for the ride*





	Breathe for Him

**Author's Note:**

> Hey.
> 
> So digging through your docs comes with its pleasures and cringes. I found this piece back from 10/13/18, and after some spring cleaning, I went with the heck of it so here it is.
> 
> Honestly, I miss this fandom so why not jump straight (I'm sorry) into it.
> 
> Feel free to leave a comment.  
> ;p

For the first time, Bucky let himself breath. He didn’t know what came over him but suddenly he felt the urge to breathe. Big mistake on his behalf. His eyes shot open as his mouth gaped only to be greeted by water and death's all too familiar presence. He struggled against it but something kept pulling him down and the water didn’t taste right. It was then he realized that he was drowning in his victims' blood. Fresh, vibrant, and a horrid shade of red. Hands started to reach and grab onto him from the thick blood pulling him deeper into it. He struggled, trying to push free of their grasps but it was useless. Dozens upon dozens of deaths didn't compare to one winter soldier. He opened his mouth to scream only to be met by his past flooding his mind.

Suddenly a warm hand, a gentle clench, got hold of him and started pulling him up. His head broke through the pool of blood and eyes shot open only to be met by Steve. Steve, beautiful Steve, kind Steve, oh how he missed him. The soldier wanted to grab his face and kiss it till he was breathless. He wanted to never let go of his hand and snuggle up into him when the nights were cold. He wanted nothing more than to be by his side, all smitten and embraced by Steve's rather muscular arms. 

Instead, those large hands of his started to shake him rigorously and he started shouting incoherent words. Why would he shout at him? What did he do this time? Bucky tried to reply but coughed out blood and what looked like strips of flesh. Once again he tried to call out Steve's name yet it was in vain. Everything was starting to get blurry, pale yellow and soon he was in a white room, floating without care. He moved his head from one side to the other, nothing but endless white surrounded him. A kind voice filled the room and Bucky´s chest clenched. It was Steve's voice, of course it was.

He reached out to the voice but came out empty. Tears ran down his face and he realized that he would never see his beloved Steve again. His chest tightened with every breath he attempted to take and the next blink transported him onto a snow-filled field. Steve’s sweet-tempered voice still called his name but it was now dimmer. It became a whisper, a background sound to the bloody setting. This time Bucky couldn't move, he couldn't breathe, he was just lying on the blood-soaked snow and gazed at the gray sky with dead eyes. Tips of tall trees made their way into the dull picture he was certain was a memory best forgotten. Another point made, he was just a corpse, slowly being dragged across a battlefield of pain.

Everything went tint white then instantly dark and soon he caught his long-awaited breath. The soldier coughed and on instinct looked around again. This time everything was real, nothing was a nightmare. He was on Steve’s lap, and on the hard floor of his apartment. He looked at Steve, whose blue eyes were filled with tears and lip quivered with concern, a trace of fear. Without warning, he pulled Bucky into a warm hug and rocked him up and down. He rubbed his back in small circles to calm him down but cried along anyway. 

He couldn't think in a time like this. Steve was holding Bucky tightly but in a gentle way that made him feel safe. He hadn't meant to make Steve cry, he didn't want to make him worry so much about him. The blond hero was coddling him, he hated how helpless it made him look. 

They stayed like that until their legs went numb from sitting on the wood flooring. Through the entire time, Bucky sobbed into Steve's hoodie while the other continued to rock him and rubbed soothing circles on his back. The larger man did let out a few hitches of his shaky breath and tears, but nothing more. He was familiar to Bucky's nightmares just not this extreme. Bucky still wondered why Steve did all of this for him. Why was he so patient with someone so broken like him. Why did he chose to defy gravity and the world's laws and instead go for what was impossible? Sure he was Captain America, savior of the world, an unstoppable war prodigy, but he was nuts for trying to bring the good out of a murderer. Steve was insane this way, but it was sweet and reassuring that this was the man he knew for so many years.

He stayed in his lap until the waves of exhaustion got the better of him and he passed out. It was an unmentioned mystery how they didn't even speak that night, instead silently knowing what the other needed. Maybe this knowing need they had was what made this whole relationship a silent bearing roller coaster. 

Maybe that’s why Bucky got to breathe in this world.

To see Steve, smiling by his side.

No doubt about it, he would burn his lungs out for this man.


End file.
